by Yuu Kamiya
“So the epic heroine was actually just a flunky. That’s a good one. Pretty sharp.”
She continued—Why don’t you write it down and publish it?—but Ino smiled bashfully and changed the subject.
“Still, to go through this half-month without a single loss. You yourself are quite the marvel, Miss Stephanie.”
“They’re just absurdly weak.” Tossing away Ino’s sincere praise, Steph furrowed her brow. “To fall for mean, silly ruses that Sora and Shiro would ridicule with one or two hundred contemptuous words and then exploit them—indeed, it’s a fine jest.”
“Well, that I can’t deny…”
But—. Ino thought to himself. Steph had, at first, received the support of Ino’s Werebeast senses. But as she piled up the victories, Ino had been reduced to the role of an attendant. This girl disparaged herself to no end…yet already she was more than strong enough. It was just that Blank was too cruel a comparison. It could now be said that hardly any normal Immanity could beat her. But without the means to know Ino’s true thoughts, Steph carried on.
“As if that weren’t enough, they don’t even notice they’re being tricked. Could it be the lords’ aim is just to deprive me of sleep until I die from exhaustion?!”
“…Miss Stephanie, you begin to resemble Their Majesties.”
—Pt. Steph stopped her feet kicking the ground.
“Sir, what did you just say?”
Wrenching her head back so forcedly it seemed it would creak:
“That I resemble our prodigal king and queen, who dally away the days in the Eastern Union—is that what you said?!”
“M-M-Madam, please calm down! I only meant that you resemble them in your manner of play!”
Steph was winning in a variety of ways—from regular use of straight-out card counting to palming, mucking, and blind shuffling. She saw through opponents’ tricks, used them against their owners, bluffed, even played mind games. All of these techniques were tricks she’d learned by challenging Sora and Shiro and losing and losing and losing. It was true that, at first, Steph herself, threatened by the prospect of the Commonwealth’s promise fading through her own failure, had thought, What would Sora and Shiro do? Yes, she’d imitated their play consciously. But as sleep deprivation and frustration at the pair who showed no signs of returning caused that threat to recede from the forefront of Steph’s thoughts, at some point, she’d started playing as though she were playing against Sora and Shiro. But her opponents were too weak. She couldn’t believe she’d even for a moment compared these goons to Sora and Shiro.
—That these little goons.
Had been looking down.
On her and her grandfather—it made her so
“Ah!”
Suddenly, Steph’s face changed as if her evil spirit had been exorcised.
“Ahh, I see. The problem is that having nobles just gets in the way of our Commonwealth.”
“M-Miss Stephanie?”
At this transformation, Ino queried nervously. But, as if she didn’t hear him…as if seeing something that couldn’t be seen, Steph, eyes gleaming, whirled about on the spot, almost dancing—
“—Ohh, Mr. Inooo, would it not be fine it we simply stripped aaalll the nobles, the merchants, the guilds—stripped them of everything, threw them into a ditch and ground them to pieces and did everything through the state? We’d fill the gaps in personnel with magistrates selected from among the people, and if they were corrupt, all we’d have to do is flay them to the booone! We’ll set up and chase out all the rotten curs who drag us down, and then the treasury will fill, policy will be ours to dictate, and everything will be settled. Right? Am I not a genius?! I-I’m—not an idiot… I’m not an idiot, reaaallyyyyyy!!”
—And she broke down.
“M-Miss Stephanie, get a hold of yourself! What you describe amounts to a purge—a reign of terror!”
Laughing or wailing as she bashed her head against the wall and screamed, Steph suddenly…sensed something—and turned her gaze…to see…
—Sora.
“Oh—oh…!”
Where has he been mucking about, dissipating to his heart’s content while leaving me to do all the work? Countless feelings arose in her, but before all that, her face flushed at the simple fact that Sora was right there. Her heart’s inability to conceal its joy beset her with complicated feelings, but—
“S-Sora! You have returned—ngeeh?!”
Smashing face-first into the column at which she’d leaped, Steph made a funny noise as blood flowed from her nose. She sprawled on her back on the floor, looking at the ceiling…then it dawned on her that the “Sora” she’d seen was merely a reflection in the polished marble column—of herself. She uttered one pensive phrase:
“…………I’m just hopeless.”
“Miss Stephanie. Why don’t you get some sleep? Rather, would you please get some sleep? I beg you.”
Picking up the limp Steph, Ino continued. “…There’s no cause for alarm. King Sora and Queen Shiro, well, they are a difficult-to-understand pair of people, but—” He struggled to find a positive spin on the inscrutable siblings. “—It may be that they are staying in the Eastern Union in order to arrange things with the Holy Shrine Maiden…perhaps?”
A Commonwealth built under Elkia’s leadership—of course, it wasn’t a matter that could be settled by Elkia alone.
“They must themselves be steadily advancing—a ‘summit conference,’” said Ino.
—Yes, that could be. Sora and Shiro’s actions always defied common sense. Yet every time, those actions worked in Elkia’s favor. This was a fact. It was best to trust them—but—
“…I wonder. Everything they say and do is predicated upon the intermingling of public and private interest…”
It was also a fact that what had always happened was that they found a way to satisfy their personal desires. Casting her eyes in the direction of the faraway Eastern Union, Steph muttered:
“…I’m sure that at this very moment, they’re just fawning over girls with animal ears, shutting themselves up indoors, and filling their heads with games like the worthless vegetables they are.”
…Ino could find no words to refute hers.
—And so we take our scene to the Eastern Union: the capital, Kannagari. Equivalent to Elkia’s Royal Castle, the residence of the Werebeast’s agent plenipotentiary: the Shrine. In its Central Division: the Inner Garden. A space somehow reminiscent of a Japanese garden on Earth, full of fresh nature and red and black. Here, in this place normally off-limits to visitors, a crowd had assembled beside the sacred pond.
“…Hey, Shrine Maiden, what is love?”
“…Tell us, Shrine Maiden…”
The agents of this serious inquiry were a black-haired, dark-eyed young man in an “I PPL” shirt and the white-haired, red-eyed girl on his lap: the monarch of Elkia and the agent plenipotentiary of Immanity, Sora and Shiro. The crowd consisted of several Werebeasts—animal-girls making coquettish noises as the two stroked them. And there was a line, each person in it apparently waiting enviously for their turn.
“…I don’t know, I have so many things I want to say to you…” The voice that murmured like soft bells was that of the girl who sat across the game table from them. The golden, two-tailed fox whose true name no one knew. The agent plenipotentiary of Werebeast—the Shrine Maiden.
“…Now this has two meanings, mind—what is going on in those heads of yours?”
The three were playing zohjong, a traditional game unique to the Eastern Union.
It shared some traits with mahjong but was fundamentally a completely different game.
“What’s going on? Oh, whoop. We win again.”
“…This game…is…pretty, fun…”
As they played, Shiro and Sora petted numbers of Werebeast girls and asked nutty questions such as, “What is love?”
Having seen this game for the first time and had its rules explained about half an hour ago, they’d alrea
dy mastered it. In the blink of an eye, they’d uncovered the most efficient strategies, countless conventions, and even devised ways to cheat. But the real question was—. The Shrine Maiden sighed with a weak smile.
“Could you let me in just a little bit on how you managed to cheat right in front of me?”
Even the Shrine Maiden’s senses weren’t keen enough to catch a glimpse. Sora grinned back.
“How could you say we’re cheating? Shiro simply memorized all the facedown tiles and tracked their positions the whole time, and I just casually felt for the tiles Shiro probably wanted—you can’t call that cheating, now can you?”
Right, of the two reasons cheating couldn’t be called out, this was one. Because they weren’t communicating at all, just inferring each other’s hand.
“Plus, come on, you’re doing it, too. We’re even, right?”
And the second was because they were competing with that as a given. In just these few exchanges, for the Shrine Maiden, who had been playing this game for over fifty years—to be plainly surpassed in genuine skill and to have the point lead taken from her…there was nothing left to say. This was a defeat so complete it somehow felt refreshing. As the Shrine Maiden thus wanly smiled with her chin in her hand, Sora began. “Okay…
“So, we’ve got three demands by the Covenants—you’re cool, right?” The Shrine Maiden chuckled in resignation, and Sora continued. “First, make an itemized tariff schedule objectively based on both countries’ interests.”
It was clear that Eastern Union understood the importance of the resources on the continent better than Elkia. Which meant that, to set rates compatible with the mutual interests of the two countries, accounting for their differences in ability, there was no one better suited than the agent plenipotentiary of the Eastern Union—namely, the Shrine Maiden. And as long as those words “both countries’ interests” were in there, she wouldn’t be able to favor the Eastern Union one-sidedly. Perfect as usual, the Shrine Maiden commented to herself. Still.
“…In essence, then, you’re dumping everything on me again, aren’t you…?”
Sora and Shiro really had, in this last month, been working. Day by day, they went to the Shrine Maiden and played games with the fortunes of the two countries at stake.
…Yes, that was some real work. If you overlooked how they’d beaten the Shrine Maiden in every game…and then dumped all of the execution on her.
“They say you should leave things to the experts. You’re the Shrine Maiden who built a great country in half a century. We believe in you!”
At Sora’s jolly answer, the Shrine Maiden cackled and scratched her head. Restructuring allied states into a federation—Sora and Shiro had apparently used the precedent of the “United States of America” from their world as a reference to propose solutions and compromises for the countless obstacles, while throwing onto the Shrine Maiden the job of minimizing the frictions. Actually, that was the right decision. Sora and Shiro were genius gamers, not politicians. But there was a different reason the Shrine Maiden had laughed. It was that up to this day she’d tried to get ahead of Sora and Shiro any number of times. This time, she’d figured she could win with a game they’d never seen, and yet she’d got it handed to her. Besides that, she’d tried to set up a number of tricks to bring the Eastern Union out on top…but in the end, she’d never once been able to get ahead of them or beat them. But the policies that had been decided upon in this manner, just as they had said, were assembled through and through for both countries’ interests. Elkia and the Eastern Union would both lose in the short term so that they would both gain in the long term. She sighed at the documents that embodied these policies but had no complaints. She was even starting to feel guilty for always having tried to outwit them. The issue was that second demand they’d always add—
“’Kay then, Demand Number Two is the usual—let us pet you!”
“…Pet you…!”
—Yes, it was that every time, they would again pointlessly wager the right to pet the Shrine Maiden.
“Considering you’re are actually putting thought into the policy, I can’t object, but…”
With a deep sigh, the Shrine Maiden glanced at the ever-growing mountain of documents. Go ahead, she indicated, gently waving her two golden tails.
“Wooot! We got this, Shiro!”
“…This, is the day…we’re gonna make you, gasp…!”
Watching Sora and Shiro pounce with gleams in their eyes, the Shrine Maiden smirked, and considered.
—Ixseed Rank Fourteen, Werebeast, was a race with physical abilities approaching physical limits. But to achieve this in the shape of a person, it should go without saying, would normally be physically impossible. What made it possible was their use of the spirits within their bodies.
…All living beings in this world had spirits in their bodies, even if just a minute amount. The ranks were based on the amount each race had and the aptitude of their spirit corridor–connected nerves—i.e., how well they could manipulate exterior spirits—magic. The Werebeasts’ aptitude was extremely low: they couldn’t use magic at all. However, all living things, even Immanity, had the unconscious ability to control the spirits in their own bodies. Werebeasts attained their astonishing physical prowess by thoroughly exploiting this. The “bloodbreaks” used by Izuna and the Shrine Maiden were prominent examples. Werebeasts were born with the skill to stir up the spirits in their bodies to raise their physical abilities to the level of self-destruction. But the price was the peculiarity that the spirits flowing through their bodies were always in disarray. The effect of this peculiarity was greater the smaller and more slender the Werebeast happened to be. As a result, Werebeasts—especially children and females—bore chronic disorders of the spirits in their bodies…discomfort. It was not a problem that could be easily solved by oneself—
……So if you want to know what bearing this had on the situation…
“…Fluffy, fluffy…petty, petty…hee-hee…”
“—!”
Feeling the urge to let out a moan at Shiro’s hands, the Shrine Maiden shifted her thoughts to hold it back. Sora and Shiro…the two were abnormally skilled—at manipulating her spirits. It certainly wasn’t the case that Immanity could see spirits. Even taking into account that they were from another world, manipulating body spirits was the realm of high-level magic. Yet these two—
“—Heh, I think this is the spot!”
“!!”
—Instantly picking up on her reaction to where they touched her, they were effectively manipulating her spirits via petting. As a result, they were resolving her Werebeast chronic disorder of body spirits—without particularly intending to do so. What was the word for this—should they be called “celebrity masseuses”?
—Now you see why there’s a line for getting petted, right?
“…So, you said today your demands are three… Mm.”
Almost moaning at the on-the-spot fluffing but holding back by sheer force of will, the Shrine Maiden asked:
“—Mightn’t I get an explanation by now? Of course, it must have something to do with this situation, eh?”
Sora and Shiro were being glommed on to by a bunch of strange Werebeast girls and busily petting them all. That was enough to make her want to say a thing or a thousand, but setting that aside… The two had wrapped strips of cloth, apparently Izuna’s, so as to hide their lower faces. In addition, Sora was wearing what looked like fake cat ears, with Shiro wearing rabbit ears. Even Jibril, waiting behind them, for some reason had droopy dog ears on her head, and beside her, Izuna was staring at the girls being petted by Sora and Shiro as if waiting for her own turn. And then the Shrine Maiden cast her narrowed eyes upon the last of their party. Before her shivered a Dhampir girl, crouching and trembling in the corner of the room.
“It seems this Dhampir—Plum—whose ‘favor’ we refused last night responded by going all over Kannagari telling everyone about our petting skills.”
App
arently, that explained the line of animal-girls waiting to be petted. They’d hidden their faces and warped to the front of the Shrine, yet just the short walk from the gate had been enough to produce this situation. Sora spread his hands and laughed.
“She says she’s gonna keep interfering with our work until we save Dhampir.”
“……I see…”
“Master, do you not feel it is about time? Let us have her wager her head in a game. And then let us ensnare her in the game and take it. Her head, I mean. ”
“I-I—I’m sorryyy…B-b—but, you see, the very life of my race is at staaake!”
Shrinking at Jibril’s murderous eyes, Plum squealed piteously.
“—So, yeah, my third demand…”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Please use the power you’ve got as agent plenipotentiary of Werebeast and order them to leave us alone until we look for them. Now there’s a line in front of Izuna’s house. We have a phobia of being looked at, and we can’t even open the door. And we can’t get on to the real issue, either.”
……
—Apparently, Sora had many things to say. Wanting to hear what this so-called real issue was, the Shrine Maiden sharply opened her mouth.
“—Why don’t you go.”
This was enough to make the animal-girls’ hair stand on end with a twitch, and they bowed repeatedly as they fled the garden as if rolling away. Watching them leave, Shiro waved. “Bye-bye.”
“Mercy me—well, you speak of something weighty, I hope?” the Shrine Maiden asked with an incredulous look, and Sora nodded back, his face tense.
“Yeah—it’s an important issue that concerns Elkia and the Eastern Union.”
Starting thusly, Sora no longer wore his goofy look of a moment ago. His face was a mask of seriousness, as if he’d hit upon an intractable problem. Hmm—the Shrine Maiden straightened up and faced Sora as he spoke.
“You know how there’s this country in the ocean south of the Eastern Union—Oceand?”